In a previous article, I proposed several considerations for recruiting adult volunteers to disciple teenagers in your ministries. But in order for there to be effective relational discipleship, there’s a crucial (and obvious) ingredient: relationship. Relationships take time, perhaps especially with teenagers who you may only see for one hour a week at best.
How Much Time Should a Volunteer Serve?
In our ministry, we ask volunteers to serve for a one-year term, August through July. Anything shorter than this doesn’t give quite enough time to develop a relationship significant enough to begin seeing fruit in a teenager’s life. Teenagers often need a good bit of time before they feel comfortable being transparent about their spiritual life with others, especially with adults. It often takes a year or longer for students to get comfortable with their leaders, and leaders with their students.
It can also take time to build trust with teenagers. Credibility is often granted more as a result of our willingness to stick around than our knowledge and qualifications. I once discipled a group of guys from seventh to 11th grade. In the last two or three years of my time with them I began to see traction, both relationally and spiritually.
Retaining volunteers also keeps you from starting over with an entirely new set of leaders each year. It can take a lot of time to get new leaders oriented to the policies and practices of your ministry. If your team includes mostly those who have served previously, you can hit the ground running at the start of each new ministry year.
While getting a volunteer to commit to a year is a huge win, it’s even better to see volunteers serve year after year. Here are some ideas for retaining volunteers once they’ve begun serving in your ministry.
Ongoing Training
Some volunteers will immediately feel confident and at ease ministering to teenagers. Many, however, will feel inadequate or unprepared. It’s important that youth ministers provide ongoing and regular training so that volunteers can feel competent in discipling teenagers. Consider offering practical training regarding leading small group discussion or having fruitful conversations with students. You can also educate volunteers regarding cultural trends or issues related to teenagers. The purpose of these training sessions is to help your volunteers become competent and equipped to minister to teenagers. When volunteers feel insecure or ineffective, it will be hard to convince them to serve for another term.
Clear Communication
Clear communication is so crucial. Volunteers will tend to be more frustrated due to lack of communication than they will as a result of over-communication. Our communication with volunteers should be early and frequent. Volunteers should know about major events months in advance so that they can plan ahead.
Aim to send weekly reminders with an outline or plan for your next ministry gathering. Clear communication keeps volunteers in the loop so they always know what’s coming. As leaders, we never want to take them by surprise or leave them unprepared.
Personally, I have a group text with all of my volunteers as my main method of communication with them. I use this thread to provide the weekly info about our mid-week gathering, as well as reminders about upcoming leader meetings. I also ask for general feedback about an event, gathering, or idea from our leaders. Whether it’s a text thread, an email, or another messaging app, pursue weekly and clear communication with your leaders.
Frequent Encouragement
Youth ministry can be discouraging. Whether it’s students with sporadic attendance, an awkwardly silent small group discussion, or a student who is walking in unrepentant sin, youth ministers can face frequent frustration.
Volunteers will eventually feel that discouragement as well. So it’s crucial that youth ministers encourage and affirm volunteers in their ministry efforts. Remind them that their ministry matters, and that often, we aren’t able to see the fruit of our ministry for months or years.
It’s important for volunteers to remember that youth ministry is a long game. Take time to celebrate and honor your volunteers publicly and privately. Ask them how you can pray for them and then follow through and follow up.
Tokens of Appreciation
In addition to words of encouragement, consider giving your volunteers tokens of appreciation, particularly at key points during the ministry year.
You might consider a gift for each leader after an overnight retreat or camp, at Christmastime, or at the end of a term of service. Books and gift cards are great ways to show a volunteer that you appreciate them. If your ministry or personal budget doesn’t allow for purchasing gifts, you might ask students and parents to write notes of appreciation. Even better if you’re able to do both!
Notes of genuine thanks and encouragement from a parent are some of my most cherished possessions. Likewise, these messages communicate to volunteers that the ministry they’re doing matters, and that they are personally seen, noticed, and appreciated.
Spiritual Refreshment
Lastly, consider ways to offer your volunteers times of spiritual refreshment during the course of their term. None of us can pour from an empty cup. Our volunteers must be spiritually nourished and healthy in order for them to nourish and lead others.
One way the ministry I serve practices this is by planning a half-day prayer retreat twice a year. During this time together, we don’t talk about or plan anything ministry-related. We simply get in the great outdoors for solitude with God in the Word and in prayer. Then we come together to talk about our time communing with Christ, and we commune with one another over a meal.
Another way to offer spiritual refreshment is by allowing volunteers to take an occasional break when needed and possible. Encourage them to use that time to have some personal time with God, or to attend another ministry in the church for a season if needed.
If a volunteer decides it’s time to step down or step away, we praise God for providing him or her for a season. We thank the leader for investing in the lives of our students.
Humble Service
In all of our efforts, we must remember that our volunteers are our brothers and sisters in Christ—not simply a means to accomplish our ministry agendas and goals. The gospel of grace produces humility in us as we look to Jesus, the one who laid down his life for the sake of others.
Following Jesus’ example means that we don’t ask our volunteers to lay down their lives for us. Rather, we seek to lay down our lives for them, to serve and love them, even as they serve and love others. And should leaders choose to continue serving year after year, we give thanks to God for them, praying that he continues to use them to bear spiritual fruit in the lives of teenagers.
Rooted Reservoir offers practical resources for gospel-centered youth ministry, including training videos for youth ministers and churches and Bible-based curriculum.
